Mensah competes with United States Women’s Wrestling Team overseas

Published 6:43 am, Friday, July 26, 2013

Photo: Wayland Baptist University Photo

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Mensah competes with United States Women’s Wrestling Team overseas

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When classes at Wayland Baptist University start for the new school year and students return from their break, friends of Pioneer wrestler Tamyra Mensah are in for a treat when they ask what she did over the summer.

In June, Mensah was invited to compete at the ASICS U.S. World Team Trials in Stillwater, Okla. Against former Olympians and medalists, Mensah put on a respectable performance, going 1-2 against some of the toughest competition that the country has to offer. Her performance at the World Trials caught the eye of United States Women’s Wrestling coach Terry Steiner, who approached Mensah and invited her to a camp that was held at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

After working out for a little over a week, Mensah continued to impress, at which point Steiner had yet another invitation to extend to the young wrestler.

“On the Wednesday before the Fourth of July, Coach Steiner asked if I wanted to travel with the team to Spain and Greece,” Mensah said. “I thought I was just going to be a sparring partner, but he said that I was going to compete.”

The team was set to leave the following Tuesday, so Mensah had to really take care of some traveling issues if she was going to leave the country.

“I didn’t have a passport and we had to order some wrestling gear, and because of the Fourth everything was closed on Thursday and Friday, and then it was the weekend. But on Monday everything came in, and then about two hours later we got to go pick up my passport.”

Wayland head wrestling coach Johnny Cobb was helping Mensah get everything in order as she had only a few days to get her required documents to where they needed to go, but in the end everything worked out.

“There were a lot of hoops to go through to allow Tamyra to be able to make the trip, but thankfully it got done in time,” Cobb said.

So after a stressful weekend, Mensah traveled with her United States teammates to Madrid, Spain. After spending a couple of days training and practicing (with some sightseeing and shopping thrown in), Mensah competed in her first-ever international competition at The Grand Prix of Spain.

“I was really surprised when we actually started wrestling,” Mensah said. “I had no idea what to expect on how (international athletes) would wrestle. I thought that they might have different styles, but they are just like us.”

After her nerves settled, Mensah won her first match against Russian Yulia Prontsevich. In her second match, Mensah quickly fell behind 3-0 against Daria Osocka of Poland.

“I went for a ‘three-point’ but ended up giving up the three points,” explained Mensah. “After that I just went for a bunch of takedowns.”

Mensah ended up coming back to defeat Osocka, which, according to Cobb, was no easy task.

“If you go down 3-0 you’re in some real trouble,” said Cobb. “For her to come back after that is a big deal.”

After winning her first two matches, Mensah found herself in the championship match against Aline Focken of Germany.

“I was really nervous about wrestling (Focken) because she was warming up right next to me and she was really tall,” recalled Mensah. “I was like, ‘This is who I have to wrestle against?’”

Even though Mensah fell in the championship match, she felt like she could have performed better. And if the two were to wrestle again, Mensah felt there might be a different result.

“I just couldn’t get over the reach that she had on me,” Mensah said. “I kept charging in because I didn’t know what else to do, but when it was over there was a move that I realized I should have been doing (to counter Focken’s reach).”

When the competition was over, the team stayed in Madrid for a few more days to train and help with a camp that Spain was hosting. While at the camp, Mensah got the opportunity to again wrestle with Focken, which she said helped her learn a lot of new moves.

From Madrid, the U.S. Wrestling Team traveled to the Mecca of wrestling, Olympia, Greece, the birthplace of the Olympic Games.

“In the original Olympics there was only track and field and wrestling,” Cobb said gleamingly. “For Tamyra to get to go there is really special.”

Because of that history there is a certain sanctity about the Olympics to wrestlers. Wrestlers do not train to become a professional. Instead, they train with the ultimate goal of winning an Olympic gold medal. That was part of the reason for Mensah and her teammates’ trip: to promote wrestling in an attempt to have it resubmitted into the Olympic games by 2020.

As if wrestling in the birthplace of her sport was not enough, Mensah got to make history as well. The Parthenon is the original venue of the Olympics, but no woman had ever competed there before. When the U.S. women’s team wrestled in the Parthenon on July 20, Mensah and her teammates became the first-ever women to compete in the famous Parthenon.

Mensah ended up falling in her first match in Greece, which prevented her from competing further. Still, she managed to impress Steiner, the U.S. women’s coach.

“Wow, she has a bright future ahead of her. She is so athletic. She just needs to stay focused and be a sponge for information,” Steiner said.

That’s exactly what Mensah plans to do after competing internationally.

“I found out that there are a lot of moves that I need to learn,” said the WBU junior from Katy. “If I can learn different positions and moves then I will give myself the opportunity to score more points.”

Cobb was quick to praise his elite wrestler.

“Tamyra represents Wayland extremely well,” Cobb said. “She is pioneering the way for future wrestlers at Wayland and is a true trailblazer.”

Although wrestling was the main focus of the trip, Mensah did have time to take in sites and enjoy the experience.

“Everything was so beautiful there. One of my favorite parts of the trip was we got to stay at the Europa Hotel in Olympia. It was amazing.